Alex Salmond's secrecy battle over £250 tartan trews

Alex Salmond charged the taxpayer more than £250 for a pair of tartan trews
before waging an extraordinary campaign to keep secret his failure to refund
the public purse, the Telegraph can disclose today.

Alex Salmond tried to keep details of his hotel expense claims during a trip to the Ryder Cup a secretPhoto: GETTY

The First Minister spent £259.40 on the trousers for a black tie ball he attended in China in December 2011 but did not pay back the money on his return to Scotland.

He only decided to reimburse the taxpayer after this newspaper tabled a request under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act in March this year that would have disclosed the purchase.

But it required a seven-month tussle with the Scottish Government and two inquiries by the FOI watchdog before his officials confirmed the money had been paid back after, not before, this newspaper’s intervention.

Civil servants initially told the Telegraph Mr Salmond had repaid the cost but refused to say when this had occurred, insisting they held no written or electronic records of the refund.

Patrick Berry, the First Minister’s assistant private secretary, has now admitted the SNP leader decided in June this year – more than 18 months after buying the trews – that the “right course of action” was to reimburse the taxpayer.

He said the Scottish Government’s repeated insistence that they had no record of when Mr Salmond paid back the money was “simply a human error on my part, which is regrettable”.

But Willie Rennie, the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, said he suspected the First Minister never intended to pay back the money until it became clear that the purchase would be made public.

He accused the SNP leader of using his civil servants as a “bureaucratic human shield” by getting them to block disclosure of the repayment date then take the blame when it emerged this was no longer possible.

The row carries echoes of his decision to spend taxpayers’ money going to court to prevent disclosure of whether he held legal advice about a separate Scotland’s EU status.

Mr Salmond dropped the case after it emerged the advice did not even exist, despite him appearing to suggest in a national TV interview that he had consulted his law officers on the issue.

The Telegraph tabled a FOI request on March 19 asking what consumer goods had been purchased for the First Minister, who earns around £140,000 per year, on his trips abroad and when the money had been paid back.

Mr Salmond’s officials twice refused to respond, prompting this newspaper in June to approach Rosemary Agnew, the Scottish Information Commissioner, who is charged with ensuring public bodies comply with the FOI legislation.

This finally forced SNP ministers into action and they sent the Daily Telegraph a letter on July 4 stating: “A pair of tartan trousers were purchased for the First Minister on December 4, 2011 for the Caledonian Society Ball in Beijing, China for £259.40.”

The letter stated the money had been paid back but failed to say when. Challenged over this omission, a Scottish Government spokesman said: “We have no further information relevant to the request”.

Asked how there could be no written or electronic records of the repayment, the spokesman refused to comment. Ms Agnew’s office started a second investigation into this omission on July 26.

This prompted a final response, dated October 3, from Mr Berry. He said: “Unfortunately the First Minister had forgotten to pack his tartan trousers for the week-long mission to strengthen business, cultural and governmental links between Scotland and China.

“This was an expense to ensure that the First Minister was appropriately attired for a black tie event.

“When brought to his attention, the First Minister decided that the right course of action was to reimburse the Scottish Government as he had forgotten his own tartan trousers.”

He said the money was refunded on June 25, only a week before the Scottish Government sent its first letter admitting the purchase of the trousers but claiming it did not know the repayment date. Mr Berry apologised for this omission, saying it was his own fault.

But Mr Rennie said he did not understand the seven months of obfuscation if there had been a “genuine oversight”. “It makes me suspicious that he had no intention of repaying the public purse for the cost of his expensive pair of trousers,” he said.

"It appears as if the First Minister has been using his officials as a bureaucratic human shield to hide his failure to reimburse the government for his purchase."

The Telegraph’s investigation into MP expenses disclosed in 2009 how Mr Salmond claimed up to £400 per month in food without producing receipts, even after becoming First Minister and spending little time at Westminster.

When he stood down as Banff and Buchan MP in 2010, he pocketed half a £65,000 pay-off from the taxpayer that was supposed to help parliamentarians leaving politics.

The First Minister has also faced criticism for his largesse using public money abroad, spending almost £470,000 to visit last year’s Ryder Cup in Chicago.